Seamless cans made from a metal such as aluminum or steel have large shock resistance and do not permit gases such as oxygen to pass through, offer such advantages as far superior preservability of the contents to the plastic containers as well as small weight as compared to glass bottles, and have been widely used as containers for containing carbonated beverages, alcohol beverages and many other beverages and foods.
Trade names and a variety of designs have been printed on the outer surfaces of the seamless cans by the plate-type printing method using a printing plate, such as offset printing (patent document 1) and by the ink-jet printing without using the plate (patent document 2).
There has, further, been proposed a printing system based on a combination of the plate-type printing and the ink-jet printing (patent document 3).